Materials and Tools

Wood for the DIY Clock

To make our clock, we first needed a square piece of wood at least 20” wide (the diameter of the clock). We didn’t want to use plywood (which could easily be cut to this size), but instead opted for boards.

Using boards would result in a better look and higher quality.

However they don’t come large enough for a 20”x20” piece, so we used two smaller boards and joined them together with pocket hole screws.

We had an extra 12” wide board left over from a previous project that would be perfect for the clock.

Cutting the Boards

Here I am getting ready to cut some lengths of boards for the clock:

We made the board cuts roughly 22” each.

Even though the clock diameter was only 20,” it would be easier to make the circular cutout of the clock if the board dimensions was padded a little bit.

Using Pocket Holes

With two cuts of board done, we were ready to join them together with pocket holes.

We made four pairs of pocket holes (eight holes in total) along the longer side of one of the boards:

Then we clamped the boards together with a 36” bar clamp and fastened them together with pocket hole screws:

The pocket holes were going to be on the back of the clock, so I didn’t have to plug the holes to make them look nice.

Here are the other side of the boards after being joined with pocket holes (you can’t even tell its joined with pocket holes on the other side):

We now had a solid square board large enough to accommodate my 20” diameter clock.

Drawing and Cutting the Circle

We had an existing 20” diameter clock on the wall that was being replaced with this DIY clock. So I traced the outline of that clock to make my circle.

If you’re making your own clock, just look around the house for something round that’s close to your target diameter (like another clock, a plant pot or plate).

Alternatively you could even use the pencil and string technique to make a circle outline.

Simply tie a string (or wire) to a pencil. Then pin the other end of the string to the center of your board (to be used as a pivot point).

Pull the pencil until the string is tight and start drawing your circle. Move the pencil around the pivot point keeping the string tight until you have drawn a complete circle.

With my circle made, I took my time and carefully cut it out with my jigsaw:

Sanding the Wood

Finally it was time for a sanding with the orbital sander. I used 120 grit paper, and gave both sides of the clock a good sanding. The seam where the two boards met practically disappeared after the sanding. I also hand bevelled the edges too with the sander to remove any splinters.

Marking the Number Positions on the Clock

To prep the board to transform into a clock, I had to mark the positions of the numbers.

So I located the center of the circle, drilled a small hole and drew lines every 30 degrees (using a protractor).

Each line represented an hour on the clock dial. I made all these lines on the back side of the clock, and used them as references later when placing the clock numbers.

Here’s a picture showing the rear of the clock with the 30 degree guidelines I made using my protractor (the black thing in the center is the clock mechanism):

Routing a Hole for the Clock Mechanism

I had purchased a clock mechanism to insert into the circular board. It’s a square device that sits in the back of the clock, protruding through the center where the hands are attached to on the other side.

The part of the clock mechanism that runs through the board was not long enough to reach the other side (the ¾” board was too thick). So I had to route out a square notch for the mechanism to sit in.

To do this, I draw an outline of the mechanism on the rear of the clock, and gave it a little bit extra space.

Then after some trial and error with some scrap wood, I determined an ideal depth for my router (about 5/16”). I used a ¾” straight cutting bit and carefully cut out the notch for the mechanism.

Here’s the rear of the clock with the notch routed out:

The clock construction was pretty much complete at this point. It just needed to be painted.

Painting the DIY Clock

The hardest part of the project was painting the clock because I couldn’t decide on the color. I actually painted the clock three times before I was satisfied with the color.

For the actual paint, I used acrylic paint from the craft store. Just the regular little bottles of paint that are usually fifty cents. The bigger bottles probably would have worked better but I always use what I have.

Another reason I liked to use this paint was because it was so easy to paint over when I changed my mind.

Finally, I settled on a chalkboard black paint color. I used black with a little bit of white mixed in – and then I kind of brushed in more black or white, to make it look like a chalkboard.

I painted the top of the clock and the side – no need for the back.

Here’s the DIY wooden clock drying:

I hung it over the mantel to see how it looked, and this time (haha) it passed the test. Third time’s a charm!

Drawing on the Clock Numbers

I bought a couple of chalk paint markers and paint pen markers at the store. However, when I got home and opened them, none of them worked – so I had to make due with what I had. And, that was plain ole regular chalk.

I used the marks I made on the back and tried to center my numbers around them.

The nice part about using the chalk was that if I wasn’t happy with the number I drew, I just erased it.

In fact, I rewrote the numbers so many times that chalk starting smearing on the face of the clock. It contributed to the chalky look, so I didn’t mind one bit.

I also printed out these Roman Numerals so I couldn’t make any mistakes.

Here’s the clock hanging on the wall with the final Roman numerals drawn on.

Last, I painted the clock hands whitish gray, as a last minute change from the stark black we bought them in.

Adding the Clock Hands

After it was painted, I inserted the clock kit mechanism, and the clock hands were attached to the other side. Here is the finished clock:

Time & Cost

This DIY project took a couple of hours and cost less than $15. That fifteen dollars went toward the clock kit and the wood. The paint and chalk were from around the house.

If you are thinking of making your own clock – or if you have a love for clocks like I do, definitely make your own. You can use anything – it doesn’t even have to be a piece of wood.

I’m so thrilled to have my hubby’s old clock off the mantel and replaced with this one! It brings a more modern element to the room – and it’s fun seeing my handwriting on a huge clock!

Want to see more? Check out the Deck the Home projects.

This week’s blog hop theme was DIY gifts. Check out the 25 talented DIY bloggers’ projects from this week!

One of the things I love about DIY projects is that you can literally make anything.

If you can’t find the style you like, you make your own.

If you can’t afford the real deal, you make your own.

Outdoor yard decorations can be sooo expensive, but you don’t need to worry about that any longer. Just make your own!

Rather than spending the money to adorn your front yard, you can use materials you already have to DIY your own outdoor Christmas decorations.

Today, I’m sharing 5 DIY wooden yard decorations that you can easily make to decorate your outdoors for the upcoming holidays.

From repurposing old materials to using scrap wood out to 30 minute or less projects, these 5 outdoor DIYs have something for everyone.

Wooden Christmas Trees

These outdoor wooden Christmas trees from Megan at Two Feet First are adorable! She made them with cedar fence pickets – and even has a creative way to light them up. I love how the lights make the trees look decorated, and they fit perfectly into a porch planter box.

Her tutorial is super easy-to-follow and will have you making them in no time. If you’ve been wanting to make a cool holiday yard decoration, this is definitely a fun one to make.

If you are just joining us, the Deck the Home Blog Hop is a 5-week series of amazing DIY holiday projects brought to you by 26 very talented DIY and home bloggers.

Each week, all 26 of us share a project centered on the same theme. The first week was holiday door decor, the second week was wooden projects, and here we are at the third week.

This week’s Deck the Home theme was none other than outdoor holiday decorations.

I just had to share my favorite this week – which were these outdoor wooden trees made from fence pickets.

So cool, right!?

My friend Megan over at Two Feet First shared this tutorial – and it’s awesome! With a little wood, spray paint, and lights, she made these three easy wooden trees, which look amazing in the porch planter.

The DIY Christmas trees even light up – and you can easily take the lights on and off for easy storage.

Megan is a DIY blogger who is in the process of updating her home – she has tons of awesome tutorials, especially for beginner DIYers. Definitely check her blog out, as it’s filled with little DIY gems.

Don’t forget to stop back on Friday, as I will be featuring a few more outdoor projects from this week’s awesome Deck the Home Blog Hop. Thanks for joining us!

If you’re wondering what my hubby and I made this week, check out our Outdoor Santa and Reindeer Sleigh. It’s a cool little plywood project that cost less than $20. Plus, it looks pretty cool suspended in the air. Aren’t outdoor decorations so fun?!

We’ve had our eyes on a set of reindeer and a Santa sleigh for years – but the price is always ridiculous.

And, at the after Christmas sales, they are always sold out.

So, I did what I do best – and I made my own.

It’s not the exact Santa sleigh and reindeer set she had her eyes on, but I wanted to go in a different direction than the standard Christmas yard props.

With my recent purchase of a new jigsaw, I could get pretty creative in making a homemade outdoor Santa sleigh decoration.

After bouncing some ideas off Eileen, we decided to cut out a sleigh and two reindeer from plywood.

Then, I would drill tiny holes along the perimeter and insert string lights. The whole thing was to be suspended between my front porch posts.

It turned out pretty nice – and we paid nothing for it. We used plywood leftover from various big projects and lights that we already had.

In fact, all of our Christmas decor projects in the Deck the Home blog hop have been made from scrap wood & other leftover materials. Check out the Christmas star and buffalo check tree. 🙂

Without further ado, here are the instructions on how to make this outdoor Santa sleigh decoration. Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom to see the other outdoor projects and tutorials in the blog hop.

How to Make Reindeer and Santa’s Sleigh Yard Decor

For just a few hours of time and less than $20, you can make your own reindeer and sleigh outdoor decorations.

Sketching the Reindeer and Sleigh

To start, I did my best to sketch out a sleigh and reindeer. Here’s my sketch of the sleigh:

Here’s the sketch of the reindeer:

Cutting Out the DIY Reindeer and Sleigh

Once I was happy with the sketches, I moved onto my jigsaw to start cutting them out.

It was important to use the right saw blade as I didn’t want to risk breaking off an antler or produce really rough edges. I opted for a fine blade made specifically for cutting curves in plywood.

To cut out the sketches, I found it easiest to place the plywood on top of a wooden box while using the jigsaw.

Here is the final cut of the Reindeer:

Here is the sleigh:

I did two reindeer, so after I cut out the first, I traced it onto another sheet of wood to make a second reindeer.

Drilling Holes for the Holiday Lights

With the cutouts made, I moved onto drilling holes for the lights.

To start, I used a marker to place dots where I wanted each hole to be.

I made use of a 2” spacer to ensure consistent spacing between all the holes. (It was a cut piece of a drinking straw.)

Here’s a picture showing how I used a spacer:

When all the marker dots were added to the sketch, I had to determine what size drill bit best matched the diameter of the string light bulbs.

I figured out what drill bit to use by trial and error drilling various sized holes into a piece of scrap wood.

With my ideal sized drill bit selected, I proceeded to drill out all the marker dots.

It was important to use a piece of scrap wood as a backing for the plywood as I drilled each hole. The backing allowed me to quickly move from hole to hole without worrying about damaging my work bench.

Also, it reduced the likelihood of the drill ripping out any plywood as the bit emerged out the other side.

Here’s the Swiss cheese reindeer after all the holes were made (the scrap wood backer board sure took a beating after two reindeer and a sleigh):

Attaching Lights to the Outdoor Holiday Decor

With the holes drilled, the next task was to insert the lights.

I had initially hoped that the holes were going to be snug enough to securely hold the bulbs without them falling out. This was not the case however.

So I strategically placed several globs of hot glue to keep the string lights attached to the plywood.

Here I am working with the lights and hot glue:

Here’s the completed back side of a reindeer with the string lights attached:

Here’s the completed front side of a reindeer:

I repeated the process for the rest of the entourage until all the bulbs were inserted into the holes and secured down with hot glue.

Adding Hanging Hooks

One last thing remained and that was hooks to allow the sleigh and reindeer to be suspended.

I decided to use some wire mounting clips for this task. These were small plastic clips normally used to mount coaxial cables to walls for organization.

However, they would be perfect for my project.

The sleigh and reindeer were now completed.

To hang them up outside, I added two eye hole screws to my porch posts.

Then I ran some wire through the plastic clips attached to the plywood earlier.

Finally I strung the wire through each eye hole screw, tensioned it well and plugged in the lights.

Here is the sleigh and reindeer in it’s full beauty.

Here is what the inside looks like – with the outdoor lights:

And, I lost the daylight pretty quickly, so I lucked out in seeing the lit up reindeer and Santa sleigh right away.

I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. More importantly, my wife loved it.

If you are wanting to buy outdoor Christmas decor but don’t want to spend the money, definitely think about making your own. We made ours for free with extra materials we had.

However, if you have to run to the hardware store for materials, it would probably run about $20 (plywood and 3 strings of lights).

Not bad for $20, right!?

Want to see more? Check out all the outdoor decor in the Deck the Home Blog Hop

Today, I’m sharing 8 DIYs that will have you running to the craft store. Not walking. Running 🙂

You see, we are in the midst of our Deck the Home blog hop, where dozens of incredible DIY bloggers are sharing themed holiday DIY projects each week.

This week’s theme was wood projects – and I’m so excited to share these amazing wooden DIYs with you.

1.Wooden Gift Tags

These wooden gift tags from Lidia at Design Inside the Box are just adorable. It’s an easy DIY project to add to your list, and it makes these holidays gifts look absolutely adorable. You can even reuse the tags as Christmas ornaments! The craft stores always have cute wooden pieces like these 🙂

2. Barnboard Christmas Sign

This gorgeous barnboard sign from Kristen and Vicki at Timeless Creations is stunning! With barnboard, paint, and the metal wording, they created this rustic yet elegant holiday sign. I always see cute wording at the craft stores, but never know how to use it 🙂

3. Buffalo Checkered Wooden Tree

While you’re at the craft store, pick up a few bottles of acrylic paint so you can paint your own buffalo check pattern – with just tape and paint! We made these wooden tree cut-out and then painted it in buffalo check.

4. Tree Round Garland

I’m loving this tree round garland from Jessica at Jessica Lehman Interior Design. With the little round circles, she made this beautifully simple Christmas decoration. I definitely have to pick up some of these tree rounds during my next trip to the craft store.

5. Paint Stick Christmas Sign

This paint stick Christmas tree sign is soooo creative! Toni from Girl, Just DIY made this Christmas tree wall hanging using paint sticks! She includes all the details of how she got these into the Christmas shape over on her blog. My favorite part is the colors – they are Christmasy but not the typical shades.

6. Peg People Nativity

Doesn’t this project just make your jaw drop?! I still can’t believe it’s homemade. Samantha over at Little Bits of Home DIYed this sweet little nativity scene using hand-painted peg people. I didn’t know peg people existed – so that’s definitely on my craft store list.

7. Holiday Wood Sign

Another project you’ll love is this Happy Holidays wood sign from Megan at Two Feet First. She made the letters out of wood, but you could pick those up at the craft store along with a string of lights to make this spectacular sign.

So, when I saw that my friend Samantha over at Little Bits of Home made her own DIY nativity – I just had to share it!

You see, we are in the midst of our Deck the Home Blog Hop. It’s a 5-week series of amazing DIY projects, brought to you by a group of talented bloggers. Each week has a theme – the first was door decor, and this week is wood projects.

There were so many awesome wood projects, but this sweet nativity scene left in me awe.

Samantha found peg people at the craft store and hand-painted them, turning the wooden figures it into this blessed little scene.

From the wood chip hay to the creative manger to perfectly painted people, this nativity will just blow you away. Isn’t it absolutely incredible?!

How did I not even know that peg people were a thing?! They’re on my list for my next trip to the craft store 🙂

A little bit more about Samantha, she shares her DIY adventures on her blog Little Bits of Home. From room makeovers to organization to crafts, she has some incredible projects.

What’s Next?

From wood mantels to holiday signs to homemade tree stands, this group of bloggers had amazing DIYs this week. Be sure to check back on Friday for a round-up of my favorite DIY wood projects for the holidays.

And, as an added bonus, next week’s theme is outdoor holiday decor.

We have an awesome post coming up – and it was all my hubby’s idea and it involves Santa 🙂

I’m really loving sharing all these awesome holiday projects with you in November! It makes me feel super organized for the coming season. I hope it’s helping you too!

Materials & Tools for the Wooden Tree

How to Make the Wooden Tree

To start, I sketched out an outline of a tree on some paper. Once I was happy with the design, I cut it out with some scissors and traced the cutout on some plywood.

Then I used my scroll saw and carefully cut out two trees from the plywood. (Seriously, if you love DIY, put a scroll saw on your Christmas list 🙂 )

Notice the center lines I made on the cutouts with my pencil. The shaded areas were marked for me to cut out so that the two trees could intersect with each other.

Here are the trees with the intersection slots cut out.

You can use our free template to do the same 🙂

How to Make the Wooden Star Topper

Next, I made the star topper using the same intersection method as the tree. I cut out two stars and cut a notch in the middle to allow them to join.

How to Make the Base of the Tree

For the base of the tree, I just layered three circular plywood cutouts, which were to be glued together.

The largest cutout (the lowest one) had a smaller circle cut out in the middle (making a ring shape). This extra cutout was to hide some batteries for an LED light string.

I did take some extra time to cut out a tree trunk (looks like an upside down stool), but opted not to use it in the finished tree.

Now that all three elements were completed (base, tree and star), it was time for everything to be painted.

Here is the unfinished constructed wooden tabletop Christmas tree.

How to Paint Buffalo Check on Wood

To paint the wooden tabletop Christmas tree, I decided on a green buffalo check pattern. I absolutely LOVE plaid and I also love a challenge. The best part of this was you basically only needed two things – paint and painter’s tape.

Materials for Painting Buffalo Check

One acrylic paint of your choice (I used green)

Black acrylic paint

Painters tape

Paint brushes/Cups for mixing

Optional: hair dryer for quick drying

Video Tutorial

Check out the video below to see how I painted the buffalo check pattern.

Painting the Buffalo Check Pattern

First, I highly highly recommend that you do at LEAST one practice piece before you start your real piece. Second, you’ll need 4 different paint colors. You’ll use your main color (green), you’ll use black, and then you’ll mix in-between shades.

Mixing your Paint

So first, you’ll want to mix your paint. I used four small cups and put green paint in one and black in another. Those two paint colors would be used as is.

You’ll take the remaining two cups and put your base color (green) in. Then you’ll add a little bit of black to each. Basically you want two shades in-between your base color and black. So, I went from green to dark green to very dark green to black.

You definitely want to make sure that you test the shades on your surface to make sure they look different enough.

First Coat for Painting Buffalo Check

Next, you paint your entire piece your base color. So, I painted my tree green. I used a hair dryer to speed up the drying process because well, I didn’t have all day 🙂

Second Coat for Painting Buffalo Check

After your base coat is dry, you will take your painter’s tape and start making vertical stripes with it. There’s an easy way to do this, and that’s by using a piece of painter’s tape as your spacer.

So, you’ll take a strip of tape and place it on the edge of the tree going left-t0-right. You’ll push this piece down.

Then, you’ll put another piece of tape right next to this one. Don’t press this down – this is your spacer.

You’ll take a third piece of tape and place that down. Push that one down.

Next, remove the second piece – the spacer – and place that on the other side of the third piece, without pushing it down.

You’ll take a fourth piece and push that one down.

Remove the spacer piece before to use on the other side. Continue this way – using the spacer piece as your guide until you reach the end.

Once you have your tape in place, take your second color (dark green) and paint the areas not covered by tape.

When painting, use a brush and DAB on the paint. Do not use brush strokes because the brush hairs will get under the tape. So, just lightly dab on the paint until you have full coverage.

You can remove the tape – and let it dry without the tape.

Third Coat for Painting Buffalo Check

This time you are going to do horizontal stripes.

Start at the top of the Christmas tree and lay down one piece of tape. This time the first piece will be your spacer.

So after you lay down the second piece of tape (pushing this one down), remove the first one. Continue to use the first piece as your spacer.

Once the tape is down, use your third color (very dark green) and dab the paint on. This will feel kind of weird – because it seems like you are painting over all your hard work. However, keep going and you will get the results you want.

Do NOT remove the tape this time. Let it dry with the tape on. The last coat of paint will go on over this tape.

Fourth Coat for Painting Buffalo Check

Yay – last coat!

This is part is a little tricky. You are going to put down vertical stripes again – but you have to line them up perfectly with how you laid down the first round of tape.

That’s why we used the spacer piece.

So if you’re perfectly laying the spacer piece down both times, you’ll have no problem.

However, I recommend using a very bright light. If you aren’t working under a very bright light, have someone hold their phone up with the flashlight on – so you can see the lines through your paint. This way, you will see if you are laying the tape down right.

So, just as we did before, lay down the first piece of vertical tape. Push that one down.

Put the spacer down as the second piece.

Lay down your third piece of tape. Push that one down and remove the spacer before.

As you are working, try to make sure you are accurately laying the pieces down, just as you did before.

Last, peel off all of the tape (you don’t have to wait for it to be dry) and you’ll be amazed with the beautiful buffalo check pattern!

Painting the Star & Stand

You’ll also want to give your star and stand a coat of paint. I used regular acrylic colors and then some glittery gold metallic paint on top.

Here’s the completed star:

Gluing all the pieces together

Once all the pieces have been painted, I applied some wood glue and assembled everything together. Here is the final result!

I love to tell you how much I spend on each of these crafts! This is another ZERO dollar project.

Scrap plywood, painters tape from the garage, and acrylic paint from the craft room! I haven’t taken a trip to the hardware or craft store at all during the Deck the Home Blog Hop. 🙂

So if you have these materials too, what are ya waiting for?! Make your own buffalo check 3D FREE tree 🙂

And if you have a string of lights laying around like we do (from a robot scarecrow we made last year), you can even light your tree up.

More Holiday Inspiration

It’s the second week of our Deck the Home Blog Hop, where we are collaborating with 25 TALENTED DIY bloggers! Check out all of their wood projects below! I’ll be featuring my favorite on Wednesday 🙂

And if you are anything like me, you’re probably loving every second of wandering the holiday aisles at Target and Home Goods.

Seriously, sometimes I want to buy their entire Christmas section.

But you know what’s even better than spending a ton of money on gorgeous Christmas decor?

Making it yourself for a fraction of the cost!

Today, I’m sharing over 20 insanely creative DIY Christmas “wreaths” that are so simple to make.

A few of these Christmas wreaths cost nothing to make, a few of them only took 20 minutes to make, and even more of them are so creative that you wouldn’t see anything like it in the stores.

These creative wreaths fall into 5 categories – wreaths made from hoops, wreaths made from cool stuff, wreaths that are totally nontraditional, wreaths made from fresh greenery, wreaths made from wood, and wreaths that are beautifully classic.

Easy Hoop Door Decor

First up, we have wreaths that are all made from hoops. From rustic simplicity to boho chic, these wreaths all the basis of a simple hoop design.

Most of these wreaths took 30 minutes or less to make. In clockwise order (pictured above), we have:

Ever see the perfect project on Pinterest but it’s just a little too late?

Yup, that’s always me.

Searching for pins the a few days before Christmas.

I find all these great ideas and am so disappointed that I don’t enough time to work on them.

Well, my friends, not this year!

I have teamed up with 25 talented home and DIY bloggers to bring you the Deck the Home blog hop. It’s a five-week series of ah-mazing DIY holiday projects.

It’s running now until the first week of December, giving you PLENTY of time to peruse the projects and complete a few of them yourselves.

Every week has a theme and this week’s theme is door decor.

And let me tell you, these talented DIY bloggers brought it!

Deck the Home Door Decor Spotlight

It was so hard to choose my favorite – but the spotlight goes to Brooke from Cribbs Style, who created two gorgeous decorations for the front door from things she found at thrift store.

Not only that, but they turned out awesome! Below is the thrift store sweater wreath she made! How gorgeous is that?! I definitely will be visiting my local thrift stores, looking for inspiration for my next projects. I bet you will too 🙂

Full tutorial is over on her blog – and you can check out the other thrift store project she did too 🙂

I love coming down the stairs on a December morning, seeing the room warmly lit with the glow from the Christmas tree. I haven’t heard a Christmas carol that I didn’t like, and don’t even get me started on those Hallmark Christmas movies. 🙂

Needless to say, Christmas is my favorite.

So for this holiday season, I have something really special for you. I am collaborating with 26 other DIY and home bloggers to bring you {drum roll please} the Deck the Home Blog Hop.

Deck the Home Blog Hop is a series of amazing Christmas DIY and home projects that we will be posting every Monday morning from now until the first week of December, giving you plenty of time to peruse the projects and make some of them yourselves!

Each week has a theme – this week’s theme is Door Decor.

So, all 27 DIY bloggers have posted Christmas DIY door decor projects to their blog today! How cool is that?!

I’ll be sharing mine with you below, and I’ll be featuring one special blogger’s door decor project on Wednesday. As an added bonus, on Friday, I’ll be posting a little roundup of my favorites 🙂

And, below my project tutorial, there is a link-up of all of the Deck the Home Door Decor projects from the week.

Without further ado, here is my door decor project which will show you how to make a simple wooden Christmas star for your door. This project cost a whoopin’ zero bucks because they were all items I collected from around our workshop and craft room.

How to Make a Simple Wooden Christmas Star

The below instructions will show you how to make this easy holiday star.

Materials for the Wooden Star

The star itself is made just with ribbon, plywood, and greens. However, I did stain and wax the star, too. Check out the materials below.

Tools Needed for the Wooden Star

Draw out the Star

The first thing I did was grab a piece of scrap plywood from the garage, and I drew out a star. I didn’t want a perfect star, but one that had character – so I intentionally exaggerated some of the points.

Cut out the Star

Once I was happy with it, I used my scroll saw to cut it out.

If you haven’t used a scroll saw yet, ohmygosh, you are missing out! It’s super cool and super easy to use. It’s kind of like a sewing machine, but with a little blade instead. The cuts take a little practice, but it’s definitely a low-pressure tool.

After I cut it out, I rounded over the edges with a light sanding from my orbital sander. This made the star splinter free and easy to handle.

Stain & Seal the Star

Next, I stained the star with a homemade stain mix. I love making my own stain, and you won’t believe the materials I used. 🙂

After staining and letting it dry a while, I sealed it with beeswax that Old Fashioned Milk Paint provided when we did our mudroom makeover. I like to use all natural ingredients, so you won’t find many chemicals here.

Decorate the Star

Now, for my second favorite part (first favorite part was the scroll saw). I took out my Christmas ribbon collection and starting looking for the perfect one.

I’ve bought all of my Christmas ribbon from Michael’s 70% off last year, during the Black Friday sales. I didn’t have any projects in mind, but rather I gravitated toward the ribbon I loved and saved them for the rainy day 🙂 That’s one of the best ways to save money with DIYs and it saves trips to the store later on.

After I chose my ribbon, I started looking for greenery. I didn’t have any of my Christmas decorations out yet, and although they are labeled and stored in a pretty easy spot, I only had 10 minutes before I had to start to dinner. So I grabbed a Christmas wreath that was easier to reach and clipped a few pieces of greenery from the back.

Not yet happy with the results, a tree outside grabbed my eye, and next thing I know, I was clipping off some greens.

So there you have it, a mix of real and artificial greenery, tied with a thrifty yet gorgeous ribbon.

I was so pleased with the results and I still had a few minutes to spare before starting dinner. 🙂

Adding the Hanging Hardware

I keep a few frame hanging kits in the garage for hanging all types of things on the wall. They are very useful to have handy. I opted to use two mini eyehole screws and frame hanging wire.

I was pretty pleased with how the star turned out. Not only did I not spend a dime, but now I had a homemade Christmas star that I love to add to my holiday collection.

It’s fun when you find decor that you love in the store, but it’s a pretty amazing feeling when you made it yourself.

More Holiday Decor for the Home

So, my friends, I encourage you to make something yourselves this holiday season! And, we are giving you tons of ideas with our Deck the Home Blog Hop.

Don’t forget to check out the other 26 bloggers door decor projects – there’s lots of easy wreaths and other cool ideas too.

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Thanks for visiting! We are Ash and Eileen, husband and wife DIY bloggers. We love working on projects in and around our home. We hope our stories inspire you to check a few things off your project list! 🙂Read more